Refresh 3+7 Episode 9 Recap

This wasn’t one of my favourite eps, not by far. It was quite slow paced and for 35 minutes one-off ep, I would expect the development to be quite progressive. The first half was quite draggy and was an overly long introduction. The real detail didn’t appear until the latter half and even then it all felt very loose and doesn’t seem to make much sense. Though, the storyline is quite touching here about a change for the better.

Two blind people, a female and a male, are sitting back to back enjoying the city live having sub-conversations with each other. The male comments that the city is very pretty and she replies that he only feels that it is pretty because he cannot see its dark side. He answers that that is not the reason; it is the place that he yearns to live in. She questions if yearning means that there is hope.

Yang Guang (Lu Yu Lai) is serving an odd job as a traffic control officer when Xiao Mei (Ye Qing) hurriedly bumps into him and drops a chain from her bracelet. A man chases after claiming that she is a thief. Yang Guang picks up the chain and stops the man, to help him from running into a car accident and the assumes that he is just an accomplice with Xiao Mei.

After a bad day at work, luck might be coming Yang Guang’s way. A friend informs him of a job that requires him to pretend to be a blind man testing a blind cane at a manufacturing company. He initially did not want to accept this job as it was against his conscience but his friend tells him that since he is a Charlie Chaplin aspiring actor, this will be a good way to showcase his acting skills and furthermore, he needs to earn money and has no choice but to accept it.

“Blind” Yang Guang takes the bus home and sees Xiao Mei with a little girl, Cheng Cheng. Yang Guang watches Xiao Mei and senses something familiar about her. He finally pinpoints what it is and confronts her being a thief and thus revealing his identity. She denies this and the other passengers kick him off. Looks like bad luck is coming to Yang Guang’s way because just as he steps off the bus he steps on dog poo.

Yang Guang continues his other odd jobs here and there and gets his first pay for the blind testing. On the way home “blind Yang Guang” encounters some children having a kick around. They accidentally kick the ball to the road and one of the children goes to retrieve it while an oncoming car approaches. Luckily, Yang Guang saves the child before anything could happen to the child. The children then asks how he can see if he is blind and he replies he has a powerful stick to aid him.

Yang Guang has another odd job at a wedding reception which so happens that Xiao Mei is also present. He sees her stealing some li xi (good luck red pockets with money inside) and when he goes to stop her, he accidentally spills his drink onto the bride which creates an unhappy bride’s family, so unhappy that the groom bashes him up.

Not only did Yang Guang not earn anything at the wedding function but the newly weds are requesting that he pay then fifty thousand dollars in compensation as well as suing him for immoral behaviour. Maybe luck might be coming Yang Guang’s way after all. The manufacturing company of the cane is looking for Yang Guang to be their endorser after a video of a “blind” him rescuing a child from oncoming traffic surfaced online.

Yang Guang is at a function endorsing the cane when he sees Xiao Mei stealing a phone but as a “blind” man, he can’t say anything or else it will reveal his identity. Later, when he gets home he sees Xiao Mei right there on his bed. She informs him that they are the same type of person; one is a thief and one is a liar. She threatens that she will reveal his real identity if he does not give her fifty thousand dollars in two days time.

Yang Guang susses with his friend that he has nothing to give Xiao Mei, of his one hundred thousand dollars of endorsement payment, half is going to the newly weds and half is going to his big brother’s wedding. He is worried what might happen if Xiao Mei actually reveals his identity. His friend advises him to first promise Xiao Mei that he will give her the money and then get the police to go after her and that way no one will believe her words.

It’s been a week and life is going on normally and Xiao Mei has not made her move yet. One night, Yang Guang receives an urgent call from Xiao Mei desperately telling him to be at a certain place pronto. He asks his friend for advice and his friend tells him to go there and then message him if anything happens so he can alert the police. He gets there and hear crying noises from Xiao Mei begging for her grandfather to wake up and so he alerts his friend. He enters the room and sees a “blind” Xiao Mei and her grandfather lying conscious. She informs him that she pretended to be blind to steal but then she got discovered and some glass hit her eye. When her grandfather saw her like this he fainted. He remembers once helping the grandfather cross the road so he agrees to help her.

After sending the grandfather to the hospital, he remembered what he sent to his friend and immediately rushes back to Xiao Mei’s place only to see her not there. He friend then enthusiastically calls him to tell him that he has finished off Xiao Mei but he doesn’t sound at all enthusiastic to hear so. He looks around the house to find a note from Xiao Mei asking him to help her with one more favour – at every weekend to go to the orphanage and pick up a girl called Liang Xing (Cheng Cheng), take her to play at Tom World’s and give her a story book each time. He also sees the bracelet and takes that too. And he does that favour.

Yang Guang goes to visit Xiao Mei who is in jail to inform her that her grandfather is well. She tells her that he is not her biological grandfather but they are closer than having a blood relation. When she was young she would get bullied. People stole her happiness so she would go steal theirs and now she just hopes that Liang Xing doesn’t end up like her and instead have a happy future. He tells her that a year will pass soon and then she too can have a happy future. He asks her why she would believe in a liar and she tells him that when he helping her grandfather to cross the road she knew that he is a good person.

Yang Guang spends his time doing odd jobs here and there as well as taking care of Xiao Mei’s grandfather while waiting for the year to pass. Finally, the year is up and Xiao Mei is freed and Yang Guang is there to pick her up. He gives her a cane and takes her to the orphanage where she gives a speech about how she can also have a happy future despite her set back.

Yang Guang takes her to a bridal store and tells her that he is going to get her some clothes which will be fit for a bride to wear. And he returns her the bracelet which he repaired (is this a form of proposal?).

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My Opinion:

What happened here? This ep is like a repeat of ep 6, just a bit better. What went wrong here, similar to ep 6 was that it lacked a solid basis for something to develop off from. The plot was topsy and unprogressive as time move on. What we saw was Yang Guang as a “blind” man who meets Xiao Mei and that’s about it. He is supposed to have some conflict, some crisis with her presence but that didn’t really happen. All that happened was that she threatened to reveal his identity and that’s all to threats. This ep didn’t have anything that would keep you wanting to watch it but rather it is more that you have to pull yourself through to watch it.

Throughout the previous eps, it there was love I felt it through, regardless of how much is present but I don’t feel it with this couple. They don’t really have chemistry between them and as couple they seem distant. They weren’t even friends to begin with and sure, they may have made progress to the friends stage but it didn’t feel natural. I mean, Xiao Mei was threatening Yang Guang and then the next minute they become friends after everything that has happened between them. And then suddenly they becoming a loving couple. See, I just don’t see that between them, just not that type of chemistry.

I am just really excited for next ep. I have been waiting 9 eps just for it so it better be the best of the bunch. I can’t wait to see it and see how it ties 10 separate eps together.